Percabeth Oneshots
by MortalsandMundanes
Summary: Basically, it's a collection of "imagine your otp" headcanons. Varying degrees of AUness. High degrees of cuteness and feels.
1. To Be Alone With You

_**(I know I'm sorry this isn't an update but I'm working on it trust me just go with it.)**_

 _ **Disclaimer: I do not own these beautiful characters or any of these beautiful song lyrics. Enjoy!**_

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Percy was fighting to keep his eyes open as he stared out at the sky through the van's window, the cloudy water stains distorting his view of the stars. It was always weird to see so many lights in the sky for Percy, when he was so used to a bright orange atmosphere to comfort him at night. It was weird, but he did always feel a sense of reassurance, and he could only figure it was because of the constellations hidden inside them. It was sometime in the early morning/late night, maybe 2 or 3 o'clock, and he and Annabeth were in Wyoming doing a small favor the goddess Demeter.

 _You mean, a_ _lmighty immortal gods need teenagers to pick up their favorite pair of Primordial Gardening Shears?_ All. The. Time. Percy was only just recently reminded that Wyoming was actually a real place, and not some sort of urban legend, because seriously, does _anybody_ even live in Wyoming? Five bucks says that anybody other than a child of Athena or a fifth grader could not tell you the capital of Wyoming. But anyway, the two of them had agreed, because that's what you do with a grumpy Grass Deity who has a surplus of gardening tools readily available. (Why couldn't she just use one of _those_ instead of making Percy and Annabeth drive hundreds of miles into what was probably the most obscure state in the country?) The Gods had been asking him and Annabeth for a lot of favors lately, and the specifics were begining to blur together, along with the numbers.

Annabeth was next to him in the driver's seat of the van, her steady grey eyes focused on the road and her head swaying slightly to the music on the radio. They had switched drivers about an hour ago so Percy could sleep, or at least pretend to. At first he had tried to distract himself by counting the cars on the highway, or by turning on the radio and finding the classic rock station, or really by doing anything but fall asleep. Every night since Tartarus, or actual hell, had been it's own miniature hell, haunted with waking nightmares about _losing Annabeth_ or _losing control_ and killing his friends, or the agonizing and terrifying combination of him lashing out and- well, you get it. He was always exhausted lately from staying up every night in a pointless attempt to avoid them, and the dark circles under Annabeth's eyes along with the slight tense of her shoulders told him she was going through something similar.

It was an unspoken barrier between the two, and Percy knew that if they didn't sort it out soon, the wall would just get thicker and thicker. But he was too unsure of who he knew he was now, after the war, and maybe a little bit afraid of what he'd become. It was constantly on his mind, that one day, she might not be there to hold him back. Every time there was a debate with the counselors in the meeting room at the big house, or every time a conversation with Annabeth got a little too tense, Percy wondered, _Is this the moment? Is this where I snap?_ The disruptive thoughts swirled through his mind until eventually he just stopped talking entirely, forcing himself into his chair so hard that the withered plastic arms would crack and crumble. Often, even Annabeth couldn't get him to leave the room after everyone else had gone, leaving him in silence and only comforting him later, at night, when the visions that were plaguing his mind were the loudest. So he, selfishly, really _really_ did not want Annabeth to discover that part of himself, because after all that he had lost, he could _not_ lose her now; he couldn't lose the one thing that woke him up from the nightmares and made every day worth living. He couldn't lose her. He _wouldn't._

He tried to keep that thought in his mind, tried to believe that everything would be ok. _I won't let you go. Never again._

Percy's eyelids eventually fell closed, and his last thought before he fell asleep was that he knew that Annabeth was slowly slipping away from him, or maybe he was slowly slipping away from her.

* * *

He woke up sluggishly, blinking his eyes slowly and feeling in his daze like there was something- _not_ right. It took him maybe ten seconds, but then he realized that he had slept dreamlessly. Completely peacefully. He was trying to register this, as it would have been the first time in _months,_ when he heard a soft, airy birdsong accompanying the radio. He moved his glance to Annabeth and realized it was her quietly singing along, her rosy lips lazily murmuring to the song playing on the radio, as if she didn't quite know the lyrics but she knew the melody by heart. It was very Unannabeth; she never really sang unless her voice would be drowned out by the other campers at the campfire, and Percy had never even thought to comment or to ask her about it. He listened to her voice carry the song's harsher rhythm, and his heart stopped as his breath went utterly still as though his entire body had forgotten whatever it was doing, so that Percy's entire self got lost in the sound of it. She sang shyly, and her voice was soft and delicate, two things not often associated with Annabeth, and still he heard it over the radio; it was almost like she was one of the Sirens they had seen so many years ago, before either of them had really _known_ what the important things were, and he couldn't help but be pulled into her lullaby. Percy wasn't even sure she was on key, but, looking at her hair shine like silver rain in the moonlight, he felt like Annabeth in this moment, like this pocket of serenity they had found, was something he should hold onto and keep, something that would escape him forever if he didn't catch it. Percy let the song's lyrics dance through his tired mind as he closed his eyes and got high on the feeling.

 _There are questions I can't ask_

 _Now at last the worst is over_

 _See the way you hold yourself_

 _Reel against your body's borders_

 _I know that you hate this place_

 _Not a trace of me would argue_

 _Honey, we should run away, oh someday_

 _Our baby and her momma_

 _And the damaged love she makes_

 _But I don't know what else that I would do_

 _Than try to kiss the skin that crawls from you_

 _Than feel your weight in arms I'd never use_

 _It's the God that heroin prays to_

 _To be alone with you_

The strangest songs are always the ones you hear after midnight, long after the world falls asleep. Percy's hand reached across the center console and slipped into Annabeth's, and for a moment he let himself dream of a future where maybe their song ended up alright.

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 _ **So, yeah, not my best work. I really need to work on characterization. But it's getting there, or at least I hope. Thank you to anyone who read or reviewed this, I love you and I'm sorry to subject you to this monstrosity.**_


	2. Stolen Moments

_**Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, but damn do I wish I did. Watch your back Uncle Rick.**_

Annabeth had her hands shoved her coat pockets and was trying not to meet the gaze of anybody on the subway. Her clothes smelled like monster, (she always wondered if it smelled the same to mortals as it did to her) and her hair was bordering on a penthouse for the stray pigeons in New York. She was sure that she was attracting some unwanted attention, and tried hopelessly to shrink into herself and be inconspicuous. She was used to the stares that her clothing and general appearance awarded her, after over ten years of hiding from monsters and being on the run, but standing out in a crowd never helps the whole "trying to not be discovered by a hydra and get mauled" thing. She thought that she had dispatched it well enough in the alley on 23rd street, but unless you get a satisfying spray of yellow dust, you can never be safe. That's one thing she's learned.

She felt a sudden pressure against her arm and turned to see a teenager sheepishly trying to squeeze beside her on the packed train. He looked a little roughed up too; his black hair was in a wild disarray and was clumped with mud, and his blue jacket was riddled with wholes in the back, but yet when he met her gaze his startling green eyes looked confident, and perhaps a bit- mischievous maybe? She looked away and tucked her arm back into her coat. When she glanced at his jacket, she couldn't help but to have noticed the square sized lump in the pocket of it. Annabeth looked at it for what was probably a moment to long to be casual, but he didn't seem to notice.

Carefully, she reached her hand up to button the top button on her coat, and as she moved it back she snatched the wallet from his pocket seamlessly, and slid it into her own. This was another thing she'd learned. Annabeth cast a sidelong look at the man's face, but his attention seemed to be focused on trying to read the map in his hand. He was squinting at the bolded words, clearly unable to understand them. She felt a tad bit more guilty about robbing him.

Ten minutes later, the train came to its next station, where Annabeth decided it was probably best to get off. She accidentally elbowed the dark haired guy in her hurry to leave, and was surprised to hear him apologize.

"Sorry, here let me just- " He awkwardly tried to shuffle a little bit out of the way, but his somewhat broad build prevented him from creating a path more than about a foot across. He looked at her with his unsettling ocean-green eyes before giving her a loose smile, and then lifted his shoulders in an attempt at a shrug, making a gesture for her to pass. It was probably a good thing for once that Annabeth was practically stick thin from poor nutrition; she squeezed by and murmured a thank-you, trying to get out of there before she got stupid and decided to give him back his wallet. It wasn't like she'd never had to steal before, as much as she hated to admit it, but usually it was very impersonal. Taking the purse from the shopping cart, or taking the cellphone lying on the cafe table. It usually didn't involve so much, _contact,_ or _interaction._ (Although, there was that one time when she had impersonated a Starbucks barista and ran away with the money, but to be fair, the customer wasn't going to give the actual barista a tip anyway, so she convinced herself that he deserved it because he was an asshole. Oh whatever. It was ten bucks.)

Annabeth was lost in her thoughts as she trotted down the subway platform, so much so that she didn't hear the guy from the train shouting at her until he was five feet away. _Crap,_ she panicked, turning straight on her heel and dodging the man behind her, who almost spilled his hot coffee. She ducked and squeezed her way into the crowd, not heading to the exit stairway but instead trying to lose him by escaping into the mass of people. After about 5 minutes of maneuvering her tiny body in and out of elbow crooks and platform benches, Annabeth figured that she had lost him. She ducked beside the bench to her right and made sure that it was still in her pocket. How ironic would it be that, in her dash to get away from the person who's wallet she'd just stolen, somebody would've taken it from her? But no, it was still safely secure in her coat.

It was always a bad idea to take out your wallet and look at it in a subway in New York, but she was curious. If the guy was sixteen like her, maybe he'd have a drivers license. Maybe she could mail it back to him. Annabeth thought she had heard somewhere that if you just put an ID in a postbox, it would sent it to the owner. Either way, she kind of just wanted to know him name. She inspected the wallet: it was plain brown leather, and slightly padded, which prompted Annabeth to scan it further. The inside pockets revealed several cards: a frozen yogurt shop card with all the punches punched, a membership card for office depot (why would anybody need to go to an office supply store so often that they got a membership?), two library cards, and a card offering contact info for an "Attorney at Law"? Puzzled, Annabeth flipped the wallet to its side and investigated the ID.

"Adika Dike. Female. Bor- " Annabeth was interrupted when a hand reached in front of her face and clasped the wallet. Reflexively, her leg swung up in a roudhouse kick and her arm jerked to the side.

"OW" The guy from the train, who Annabeth suspected was probably not actually the owner of the wallet, fell to the platform and clutched his stomach. Annabeth made to run away, but her legs were swept from under her and she barely had enough time to turn her head so that her nose didn't break when her face hit the ground. She made a small grunting noise and moved to a sitting position, wondering why nobody had noticed them fighting before remembering where they where. Gotta love the City.

She looked and saw the possible-wallet-thief sitting a couple feet away from her, looking surprised and possibly impressed. She smiled to herself, because yes maybe she was sort of a bad person, and yes she was currently living in an alley next to a grocery store, but at least she could fend for herself. At least she could protect herself if everybody else had decided they didn't want to. She shook her head and stopped that train of thought before it could go any further. Annabeth turned her attention back to the guy she had just sent to the floor. Her gaze locked with his for a moment, staring at each other like a dear faced with a hunter, except she wasn't completely sure who was who at this point. She began to stand up.

"Wait! You still have my wallet! I need that!" He stood up quickly and took hold of Annabeth's wrist. She raised an eyebrow at him.

"Oh yes, I apologize, how rude of me Miss Adika. Please, don't arrest me." she mockingly put a hand to her heart and stared him down, trying not to giggle at his stunned expression.

"Ok then, fine, you got me. It's not my wallet. But it is also not your wallet." He moved his hand to grab onto it, and Annabeth tightened her grip. He looked at their two hands tugged the stolen wallet. His mouth formed into a small smile, more of a smirk really, and he looked back up at Annabeth with a challenging expression.

"Finder's Keepers."

"Loser's Weepers" She retorted. He narrowed his eyes and his smirk grew into a grin.

"Look. I can tell you probably need the money." He winced, "I mean, you seem like you're desperate for the wallet. I mean, ok look, I need it too. You can probably tell, I look like hell and I'm starving. Let's just talk this out for a minu-" Annabeth tried again for the kick to the side, but this time he dodged, and caught her leg with his other arm. Annabeth was thrown off balance, and she began to fall backwards until the wallet thief let go and held her arm to balance her.

"Wow. Ok, so talking isn't your thing I guess." He laughed awkwardly, his grip still tight on the damn wallet. Annabeth glared at him. "What? _I'm_ willing to share. I think there's about fifty bucks in there, fifty-four if I counted right." He shrugged. "I mean, I kinda need as much as I can get, but, and no offense, you look like you do too. Can't we just split it? Be morally deficient together?"

Annabeth, despite herself, laughed. "Let me look inside. Here," she held out her other arm, "if you want to make sure that I don't kick your ass and run away." He stared at her warily, but grabbed her arm and, slowly, let go of the wallet. Annabeth contemplated how hard it would be for her to escape now, but decided that she should at least _try_ to not be a horrible person. I mean, it's one thing if she's starving and fighting for her life and decides to swipe a few bucks, but she couldn't just leave this poor guy with no cash and a black eye. Besides, she had a stinking suspicion (no pun intended) that she wasn't the only one who smelled like they took a bath in monster. Maybe this guy was a freak like her, an outcast who attracted strange monsters, someone who got kicked out of their family for being to dangerous when they barely knew how to spell the word.

She struggled to get to the money pocket of the wallet, and, using her one free hand, pulled out two twenties, two fives, and four one-dollar bills. Annabeth almost cried thinking about all the food it could buy, and, oh god, _soap._ She looked up and saw that the dark haired boy was eyeing it almost hungrily. She felt a sort of comradery with him, knowing exactly how he felt. Annabeth tucked the money back into the pocket and slipped out the frozen yogurt card.

"Alright, deal. We'll split it. But after all that, I could really go for some yogurt. Same?" She held up the card for him to read, and he chuckled and nodded.

"Cool. Oh, and by the way, my name's actually Percy. It's been a real pleasure getting robbed from you, we should do it more often."

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 **OK wow that was horrible, but I'm trying to write out all of my rustiness, so sorry that you have to read the result. Hopefully these will get better as time progresses.**


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